Verster, Empowering the poor: The Bible and the poor in informal settlements ...chapter: 12-14).^7 A very clear example of this is that a church should also
take responsibility for those in need. Paul listens to the call of the church
from Judea where there was poverty and need and he made a collection
to help them as brothers and sisters. In 2 Corinthians 9,^8 the church in
this sense has the opportunity to become involved in the deepest need of
the community and of people in the community. The church should
look after the people in need in the community so as to help the com-
munity to be free of want.
Nowhere is the positive relation of the community of love clearer than in
1 John 2:7-11, 3:11-17 and 4:7-20.^9 God is the God of love and should
always be honoured for that. He expects love from his community and of
the community of faith. Brotherhood and sisterhood in faith is therefore
of utmost importance. The community of John should be acknowledged
by their sense of belonging.^10
4.3 Koinonia in the church
To understand this, we should look at what the church in more depth.
Who is the church? First of all, it should be mentioned that a church is
the people of God in Jesus Christ. It is Jesus himself, by giving himself
up as the true salvation of people, who calls together a church to be his
followers. The church lives by the one and only proclamation and that is
(^7) The importance of mutual dependence and the concern of the various members of the
body are emphasized (Mare 1980:265). The interdependence of the members of the
body is also explained by Hays (1997:215).
(^8) Martin (1986:288) writes: “Then, as a second motif, the collection is shown to fit in to
Paul’s exposition of the Christian life which falls into the pattern of “grace/gratitude”,
a nexus that characterizes biblical religion. God’s gift (Gabe) is received by our giving
back to God (Aufgabe) in the delightful duty of thanksgiving”.
(^9) Brown (1982:554) refers to the love that comes from God: “The love of God incarnate
in Jesus must become incarnate in Christians; and love, which is received in and with
divine life, must, like that life, be active. One might have expected the author to say, ‘If
God so loved us, we in turn ought to love God.” But while divine love has an element
of reciprocity (which the author may be assuming), it is primarily outgoing to others,
in imitation of God Himself”.
(^10) Smalley (1984:213) mentions the relation with God and the community: “He does this
also by associating the life of faith and love with the reciprocal relationship between
the Christian believer and the Father in the Spirit (v 24). If this interpretation is cor-
rect, it draws attention to the importance and significance of the ‘togetherness’ which
should characterize God’s covenant people, and thus may have acted as a rebuke to
those who were attempting to introduce division into the Johannine community (cf
2:18-19, 4:1, 2 John 7)”.